BRING 'EM BACK TO LIFE Ep 20 "Martell's Salvage Pt. 2" (Full Episode)

Do you love old cars and trucks? Join us in

bring

ing them

back

to

life

where we search America's

salvage

yards and

back

yards to find that divine target of a tough skull or that restorable Jim in the rough, come with us back in time as we raise the status of our

salvage

yards to help museums where I want it North Dakota my name is Mike Martel I have been in the salvage business my whole

life

over the years it got bigger bigger bigger this Galaxie 500 XL hardtop from two doors this is a 390 stick car two door hardtop I'm Michael Martell.

I own Martel's Incorporated. I currently acquired it from my father approximately two and a half years ago. I spent a third generation family with myself and I have my son Ross who will be a good his partner will be a fourth generation the reason I basically bought this mozi has so many older and valuable cars and he always had a love and passion for That over the years, has had several people who have wanted to come and buy. the inventory and basically crush it, process it, take it out of the trap, burn it, he's had many opportunities to sell it, but he decided he was going to keep it in the family, so my son and I decided to buy it from him and move on.

As an ongoing business we would run the junkyard next door so we

bring

in a lot of vehicles all the time plus they have tons of vehicles to offer for parts and also repairable units which my grandfather started. around 1935 I think was the actual date and right behind us and this actual building is where the original first yard was and it started with about 200 300 cars and in this rural area we have since moved it from this location to submerge it. what I saw and he said he bought over a hundred acres and there's probably 60 of them covered with cars, trucks and tractors exactly exactly there's 60 acres in the back and we're moving, they're there because it's landlocked. and we were moving forward.

I would do it. Let's say by the time things are distributed we'll have about a hundred acres per product and I hope people see it and want to come remove some of it for projects. We have many things available. We have people. Coming from all over the United States and even different parts of the world, now the biggest thing we see or hear from people is that we don't have a lot of rust on all the products, a lot of our cars weren't subject to salt. I like it and get some of the other states, so there are many body parts that are still in very good condition.

Yes, okay, thank you very much Michael and we enjoyed our afternoon mainly with Ross, who died, but now we have your story and since we spoke on the phone I now have all three generations involved and we met your wife and I hope we can help you move pieces. Thank you so much. I did it over the years. I kept the cars here because I don't want to get a Grob for parts for the hotel, yeah, seven Chevrolet convertibles, you know, these beautiful cars here, oh, hello, yeah, the old wooden mobile, old here. I took it and fried it with some primer on a great junkyard truck, right?

Tommy, yes, yes, and I have the engine. I really have in mind to restore that car. Oh, and I have a second Oldsmobile 23 and the other building. His son called me and wants to come buy that car because his father wrote to social security. Number and address everything to make sure someone receives it one day. Ross, you were telling me that you're a truck guy, so you gathered all these trucks from the yard, got them all out here, and they're for sale. yeah, so they were all for sale before we went to Graham, yeah, okay, I know what it would be like if the good Lord gave me about 50 more years, he knows the clock starts ticking and the alarm goes off, well , the trick is to be ready when the time comes.

The alarm goes off I won't make it I'll just get it right What's that yellow? I mean, there's a fork there, that's an Air Force, yeah, a clay pig identifies a door or any hood that's okay, it's always good to wait for your cab, you know they'll be swapped, yeah, except those early Forges, They look like the same truck, but they have Ward here, so you're dumb, you should build it up a little, Texas guys, a little, there's a '57 Chevy, sorry. there I was always going to restore that four door hardtop, yes a local gentleman died in it.

I just didn't know if two sevens appear that eat down here, they say like all the cards say like Ultron, that you've been searching and you didn't have love. come with us on a trip to the past on a walk, he will be glad that you came to see as all the cards say, as we will try, you have been searching and he had no love, come with us on a trip to the past on a walk you'll be glad you came say like old cards say like we'll try you've been looking for one and head down come with us trip back in time on a ride the elders glad you came we're back at the The garage isn't the same as the one on the '57 Chevy, but I'm going to reference that because what I found on that '57 Chevy at a salvage yard, I put a battery in it, not the key in the ignition, and the engine turned over and died.

It's off to a really good start and of course you saw the tune up and everything we did and that car isn't running or driving, the '56 Chevy convertible on the other hand was in storage somewhere a lot longer than the '57 and this old 265 if we put we have put a battery on it, we have put it in gain, oh, we have rocked it back and forth, we have put fluid in the cylinders of the spark plugs to try to loosen them and it won't turn over, so this one night we got rajatap to volunteer, our machinist and and our mechanic and we're going to start tearing this down, look inside this 265 and see if this power pack can be tuned up enough to work or if we're just going to take it out for now, put another one in 265 here and make it work because this is bringing them back to life, not a high value restoration, so tonight the 265 is going to be dismantled, let's see what it looks like, yeah, well, no harm, nothing, keep valve cover off. and it looks pretty clean in there, it's not all

full

of old burnt oil, so now we have to go ahead and see what it looks like in there now, the other reason we've taken a little more time to dig into this engine . is that the 57 Chevy we found only had 70,000 original miles on it so it's not relatively high, this 56 the odometer stopped at 90 something thousand so it probably needs to be rebuilt anyway but we just have to take a look and see if we can determine why. she grabbed take the trailer a little soul behind the trailer hitch this to a four wheeler fill it with marbles drivers driving running through a cornfield in one jump so you put a scratch on it like yeah, it comes out a lot it's not the same nothing drastic Here's something you don't see on all mini 56 Chevys.

This is the part of the wiring harness under the hood that runs through the overdrive switch. One of the things we need to make sure we pay attention to because you might have a museum

full

of 56 Chevys. but this is the only one I have this type of four cylinder set up from the factory with it with a power pack and a three speed overdrive, so I have to be careful where all these parts are when we take this one apart, we learn. a trick on them, small for bells, from an old hot rodder, remember in nineteen he said what he said in the sixties, it's a new car and he bypassed the override switch so the overdrive would lock up in the first year low, which made it a really fast little race car. right there well 1956 fast 2017 and that's because the 5678 came from the factory with belt speed all the units had four eleven speeds in the rear and that was part of the package so they really moved and They got out of the way if they wanted. for sure, horse-drawn farm machinery, the Omni, she got our money, she shot you no, no, no, not near us, there are some Lancasters coming here, okay, I think the math was about the promised mafia, they got the TV show, well this 60 kid power hardtop has a Dormition but it still has the small block right there, you know, standard shift in the hump, looks like the transmission is still there, bench seat standard v8 still in it, a two door station wagon that is about a 54 and two two door chevy sedans. this is a standard shift and this was the standard shift this one has the seats Chevrolet says this is an early shovel a coach cut for a 1938 Chevrolet convertible pickup truck before and after I'll tell you what they are in Mandan North Dakota it's the beginning of the West here we are in mandan north dakota with a car show outside where you will see a lot of footage our name is tom and cherie freak this project took four years built from the trees in a beautiful black cherry we drove to the gulf of mexico with the Adam Indianapolis Speedway.

We drove it at the Kansas City Speedway. We do a lot of races and car shows around the country. It was wonderful. fun car, yes it was, they knocked it out of the trees in 1996, it was a four year bill and we started driving it in 2000, 2001 and it's 2018, we still drive it and love it, everyone else loves it when we go around cities and we've had many couples wedding in the backseat, we've had our kids for high school graduation in the backseat in the backseat, it's just that there are graduation parties, haven't all of our kids had problems?

From the back seat the seat noise is amazing if you find an old car that doesn't look like it can be built, don't believe it, there is a real picture that you can reconstruct, bring them out of the grave and reintroduce them, bring them back. to life, that's our motto, we have been, it's an amazing car, thank you very much, oh yes, the noisy seat, mother, and I see one on Renee and I are in Bismarck, North Dakota, and last night we were in a event sponsored by the North Dakota Sphere in the Association. across the Missouri River in Mandan and a rod bar so this is the big event here this year and every year and we will be a part of it so what year is your beautiful fully bodied 30 to 32 Chrysler steel, original frame? front right, aren't you saying it's good?

Oh, Mustang 2 front end, all good, that's very common. 357 are really in a Chrysler. Well, I felt like it doesn't happen. This is a Chevrolet and the door keys are affordable, but it is a street rod. that's what we do right yeah that's right 51:14 says someone who just restored Judge Masters yeah okay like I said I'm with Renee and we're in Fish Mock North Dakota and I just met a friend from Facebook, George Masters and you. I have a beautiful '51 Ford Woody truck. Tell us about this project. George, yes sir, this got really cool because one day I got a call from my friend who's right behind us and he said, "I'm buying four cars and there's a Woody in it." Would you be interested in the corner of this concept?

I said I never made a Woody about us getting it, so I bought it from him and told him we had to get it right away because the wife wanted to sell and the husband didn't have any. Have you ever heard that story? I'm telling you to go pick it up this afternoon in a rollback, so there are photos in the back showing how they wheelbarrowed me out of the rollback and put it in my trailer. The main body was actually pretty good, there wasn't any wood left. so I decided I was going to do a real high end restoration on this car, so we went with an Art Morrison chassis.

The wheels are custom made in California so the original hubcaps would fit on a 17 inch powder coated wheel so because I wanted to show off the color I chose from the 2015 Camaro SS and it's a dark metallic green and the wood I did in Fife Washington by a gentleman who makes him one of the best in the country. I'll have to say it. It took me 15 months to get it and I'm a little impatient but just wait so now you have a body and you have new wood the body doesn't pay if you have a chassis and an engine that fits the hood he doesn't pay.

It's because Don and I the body is not finished now you have to put wood on it, so they had to mount the wood, she mounted the body on the hood since it will be permanent, then they put the wood on the car and sanded it. to fit the contours of where it's going to go because every door is different, every side panel is different, so you take we'll go back after we sand it and then you finish it, this has a smart marine varnish from a marine varnish and then you have to remove the body from the chassis, paint the body, paint the car, finish the chassis with paint or powder coat, replace the body in the way it is to be configured so that its stance is correct, mount or paint the body and then mount the wood with all the stainless steel bolts that they have have nuts hidden behind them and you know you're on your way, but you're not done yet because you have to put it together, you have to finish the inside, the interiorsNo.

It just happens that interiors have to be planned and scheduled, so the place I had this done in Minnesota coordinated with an interior guy who they selected based on their workmanship, so the car was, I'm going to say, 80% done , so he went to Pelican Rapids. Minnesota and that guy did the interior. Now I met him and chose the general tones, but I let him choose the design and everything. If you look at the painless stainless steel specialist on the doors, you'll see that it matches the stainless steel on... oh, who? That's what occurred to me, the rug.

I said: What do you think of? You know you have a brown and tan leather interior. What do you think we do with a brown rug? He said: Well, what would you think if we did dark green? Do you know what? I know what you're doing, if you think dark green looks good, that's fine with me, so the dark green carpet with tan piping and the seats are kind of leather and vinyl combined, they're not all leather and it's Just the way I wanted it, it turned out perfect. I just love it. There are no faults in the panel.

I don't know how you can get a flawless paint job because it's impossible, but we've had a lot of people look and there are no flaws, so what makes you tick? George. I have a 408 Stroker. I built my proformance in Melbourne, Florida, it has a Holly Sniper fuel injection system, all electronic overdrive, five speeds for the transmission and it's tuned to five hundred and forty five horsepower. I finished it, so this one is June 9th and I finished it in March, so I did the three shows indoors over the winter, it's okay and now we're starting to drive it, I still have some bugs to work out, it's my pleasure, It's rare to have one specifically in the Dakotas. true, and one of this quality is just great.

I'm very proud of it. Hey, dad, you should be and you should know that I'm so happy to meet you. I'm going to let my wife hold the camera and I'm going to shake it. Hands up and tell people that another Facebook friend is meeting in person. Oh, you want to know something else. This is what I did on the steering column, which is Chevrolet. made by an artist this is painted by an artist so i would prefer glass to have a good time once you get hungry you know Scotties is offering a big sucker inside as well as for the show inside come home, so chat quietly and have him.

With almost double the cheeseburger, this fried ball a hundred, that's a good deal, yeah, yeah, yeah. I like dancing more, I know, but that's not the quality. I like that your power steering requires all the power you have. Well, all I can say. You are, I'm not going to fight with her. I saw them driving together and I said, "Oh, his and hers. I have to go find them for 22 years and tell me about your car. This is a 1929 Ford Model A Phaeton and our 1934 debate doesn't work. I'm in Auto , we don't want to scratch the car and I still have my body.

I won't keep them like this for next time, so let's go out and so I can see it from the front and you can tell me a little about your car and your name if you want, well, my name is Levi bits and this is my fall from an eclipse replica I'm a big Fast and Furious fan I did this to fall not twelve thousand on the corner cable and this is the only recognizable movie car in Bismarck yes definitely. I recognized a movie car in the state of brands, lift it I'm the only one the longest and highest railroad bridge in the United States over the Sheyenne River in Valley City North Dakota